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12 work, and nobody thought of writing his history. No one even took the pains of translating at full length the part of the works relative to America, which was published in Spain under the title of History of the West Indies. People were contented with vague rumors, — with palpable errors. The only circumstance which prevented Columbus from being entirely forgotten was, perhaps, the stupid story of the egg, which, notwithstanding its extreme improbability, was received as true. Columbus had discovered the New World, and to explain his discovery broke the end of an egg on a table! This story summed up the two principal events of his life, — the only ones that were to be remembered. The story of the egg being pleasant for children, the first history of Columbus that was written in German, was for the amusement of youth.

How could men be seriously occupied with thoughts of Columbus at a time when his work was so little considered by the writers, the philosophers who ruled the eighteenth century, — a time when the whole American continent was known, and the extent as well as the form of the earth determined? Those men who imagined they had found in America objections against Moses and the Sacred Scriptures, were not placed in favorable circumstances to appreciate the mission of the man who had placed the old world in relation with the new.

We cannot be astonished at the errors of vulgar minds, when we see a celebrated writer, Raynal, decked with the title of Philosopher, and author of the famous Philosophical History of the Indies place Vasco de Gama above Columbus, in considering the passage of the Cape as the grandest epoch of history! To thank the Academy of Lyons for having elected him among its members, he proposed to it a prize on this silly platitude, which he decorated with the name of question: "Has the discovery of America been hurtful or beneficial to mankind?"